
“There never has been any disposition on the part of the people of Louisi¬ 
ana to deprive the negro of any of his political or civil riglits. There has been 
and will continue to be a determination, fixed and tinalterable, to deny him 
social privileges on equality vdth the whites, to prohibit him from aspiring 
to any equality in social life, which nature forbids.” 


SPEECH 


OF 


HON. S. 1). McENERY, 

OF LOUISIANA, 

IN THE 



WASTIIN'GrXON'. 

1900 . 

*^1U L ■’ 










SPEECH 

OF 

IION. SAMUEL D. MoENEEY. 


RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE IN NORTH CAROLINA. 


;RIr. McENERY. I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate reso¬ 
lution No. 68, and that it be read. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair lays before the Senate 
the resolution indicated by the Senator from Louisiana, which will 
be read. 

. The Secretary read the resolution submitted by Mr. Pritchard 
on the 8th instant, as follows: 


Resolved, That an enactment, by constitution or otherwise, by any State 
which confers the right to vote upon any of its citizens because of their de¬ 
scent from certain persons or classes of persons, and excludes other citizens 
because they are not descended from such persons or classes of persons, hav¬ 
ing all other qualifications prescribed by law, in the opinion of the Senate, 
is in violation of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution 
of the United States and of a fundamental principle of our republican form 
of government. 


C 

.r . 




Mr. McENERY. Mr. President, the solution of the race ques¬ 
tion in the United States is one of the most serious problems that 
ever confronted a nation. It is confined to no locality. Every 
State is affected by it. The social, political, and industrial wel¬ 
fare of the South have influences on other sections of the country. 
We are but on the threshold. No man can predict what is be¬ 
yond. So far the best intellects of the South have endeavored to 
find some remedy to make the South prosperous notwithstanding 
the presence of a vast number of ignorant blacks, to make her 
social position clear and defined in the separation of the races, 
and to place her on a political basis that will insure stability to 
her institutions; make the ballot box the sacred depository of the 
liberties of the people instead of the charnel house where under 
negro domination they were assassinated; to prevent them by 
means of the ballot and superior numbers from again getting 
control of the State and inaugurating the era of terrorism and 
which prevailed under this Government from 1868 to 

'^b^ecollection of that period is like a hell-born dream, and 
one is almost unnerved at the mention. It is the darkest and most 
l’ shamefdl period in the history of the human race. The wonder 

* now is that by force it v.'as not sooner terminated by an outraged 

^ people.' 

legislation of Louisiana which has for its sole object 
tKd atlvancement of both races, the progress of the State socially, 
politically, and industrially, and inaugurate again negro domina¬ 
tion in that State, the tragic period of 1876 will be reenacted. 
The white Republicans of Louisiana make no complaint against 
the provisions of the present constitution regarding suffrage. 
The more intelligent negroes accept it as a wise settlement of the 
question of suffrage. The ignorant of the negro race are indiffer- 


2 


8;?70 


10 a • 




1 



3 


ent about it, as they have long ceased to have any political affili¬ 
ations except those which were momentarily created by the 
purchase of their vote. 

There never has been any disposition on the part of the people 
of Louisiana to deprive the negro of any of his political or civil 
rights. There has been and will continue to be determination, 
fixed and unalterable, to deny him social privileges on equality 
with the whites, to prohibit him from asi)iring to an equality in 
social life, which nature forbids. 

Very recently the so-called National Republican party in Loui¬ 
siana held a meeting of its executive committee. The chairman, 
H. P. Herwig, of the regular Republican party of Louisiana, was 
present and evidently the controlling influence in shaping the pro¬ 
ceedings of the National Republicans. There was a combine made 
between the two organizations. The following resolution was 
adopted: 

Resolved, That all Republicans, and all other persons who are qualified as 
electors iinder the constitution and laws of this State, without distinction as 
to race, color, religriou, nativity, or former political affiliation, who condemn 
the usurpation of 1896, who favor free, fair, and honest elections, who believe 
in the selection by the people of their registrars of voters and of all other elec¬ 
tion officers, and who desire to strip the executive of the power to dictate 
to and control, through his appointees, all conventions, registrations, and 
elections are invited to participate in the selection of delegates to the con¬ 
vention which is called by this committee. 

The following agreement was entered into between the two 
organizations: 

It is agreed between P. P. Herwig, chairman of the State Republican com¬ 
mittee of the State of Louisiana, and W. E. Howell, chairman of the State 
Republican committee of the State of Louisiana, that there shall be a joint 
call issued by the committees presided over by the said Herwig and Howell 
for a primary election to elect delegates to a State convention to be held at a 

time and place to be agreed on, say, not later than the-day of February, 

1900, for tlie purpose of nominating a Republican State ticket and for dele¬ 
gates at large to the national Republican convention called to meet at Phila¬ 
delphia on the 30th day of June, 1900. 

All Republican qualified electors under the constitution and laws of Loui¬ 
siana shall be entitled to participate in said primary. 

Rules and regulations for the conduct of said primary to be agreed on by 
a committee of five from each party. 

The said Herwig and Howell obligate themselves to appoint a committee 
of their respective committees to report to their re.spective State committees 
the means adopted to carry out the purposes aforesaid. 

The object and purpose of this agreement is to harmonize all party differ¬ 
ences and to present a united front to the common enemy and build up a 
strong Republican party in this State. 

Final action on the agreement is to be had by the respective State com¬ 
mittees. 

P. F. HERWIG, Chairman. 

W. E. HOWELL, Chairman. 

New Orleans, January 6,<>1900. 

No complaint was made of the suffrage article in the constitu¬ 
tion of Louisiana. It was, in fact, approved. One member of the 
committee went so far as to claim that the Republican party of 
Louisiana was responsible for the suffrage clause, as it had forced 
the Democrats to adopt it, and that the Democrats had no right 
to claim credit for it. 

It will be observed that this was a primary election, and under 
the call the Republicans asked only that those who were qualified 
electors under the constitution of the State of Louisiana should 
have the right to vote. 

From the day that the negro was enfranchised and negro domina¬ 
tion prevailed in the State until 1876, when it was overthrown, there 
was an era of corruption, vice, and tyranny not equaled in any 
age. Congressional investigation and reports prove this. As an 
3970 


4 


initial step to this corrupt era the Freedman's Bureau was organ¬ 
ized. The negro was made to believe that he was under the spe¬ 
cial protection of the Government and its Army, and that the 
white man was his inferior, and that any personal grievance he 
had would at once be righted by the Bureau and the offending 
white man who dared to insult him Avould be summarily pun¬ 
ished. This too often happened on the unsupported testimony of 
some negro who imagined he was o:ffended and his new-born lib¬ 
erty slighted. 

The Bureau agent exacted from every planter.a large sum of 
money for the privilege of employing negroes, reaching in some 
instances, to my personal knowledge, the sum of fifteen hundred 
dollars for the year. Negroes became justices of the peace, con¬ 
stables, sheriffs, legislators, State officials, lieutenant-governor, 
generals of the militia. Even the high office of governor was 
awarded to him. They -were ignorant, insolent, and oppressive, 
and corrupt beyond mention. The State debt in eight years in¬ 
creased from four to fifty million dollars. They were police jurors 
in parishes and councilmen in the towns and cities. All parochial 
and municipal indebtedness increased in the same proportion that 
the State debt had increased. The State expenses alone went to 
$19,000,000 a year, when the legitimate expenses ought to have 
been then, as now, one and a quarter million of dollars. 

It is well known thatxlaws were enacted duriug recess. They 
were promulgated after the adjournment of the legislature as 
having been passed, when they never were presented to that body. 
The journals were fraudulently manipulated in order to show 
that they went through the regular course of legislation. The 
courts as a rule were corrupt. Negro jurors were impaneled, and 
no white man had an opportunity in criminal cases for a fair trial. 

A drunken judge on the United States bench at midnight signed 
an order organizing the legislature of the State, and no member 
was permitted to enter the statehouse without a permit signed 
by the United States marshal. Polling places were before dawn 
taken possession of by negroes, who stood in long lines, and it 
was with great difficulty and humiliation that a white man could 
vote. White men under arrest for some fancied wrong w^ere 
brought to the polls under a guard of United States soldiers 
to encourage, edify, and amuse the negro voters. The entire 
State was a military camp, and United States troops were almost 
daily employed as political agents. Detachments were furnished 
sheriffs and constables to make arrests on warrants issued by 
courts of record and justices of the peace. The parties in many in¬ 
stances were turned over to the military authorities and, under the 
pretense of a rescue, kept under a military guard. United States 
marshals forged by the hundreds the names of United States 
commissioners to warrants and arrested with United States cav¬ 
alry the most respectable citizens on fictitious charges and placed 
them in irons and confined them in loathsome dungeons. 

The Republican Representative from the Fifth Congressional 
district of Louisiana had the boldness to publish in a Republican 
paper called the Intelligencer, in order to give him greater power 
over the negroes, that these troops had been furnished at his re¬ 
quest, on the requisition of the Attorney-General of the United 
States, for the sole purpose of keeping the Republicans in power. 
People lived in terror. Every man went armed, expecting an attack 
at any moment from the negroes. It was the pastime of drunken 
negroes riding along the roads to fire into dwelling houses. Prior 
to ah election they became more turbulent. The people could no 
8970 


5 


longer stand such a condition of affairs. For some months prior 
to the Presidential election of 187G they became unusually violent 
and unruly. 

The consequence was that the indignation of the people broke 
into fierce energy and overthrew the negro-carpetbag domination. 
At its end the State was in a pitiable condition. Tax collectors had 
stolen the collections they had made. The State treasury had been 
looted and the auditor's books made way with in order to prevent 
prosecution. Levees which had been built for $1 per square yard, 
when they ought not to have cost more than 19 or 21 cents per 
square yard, were found to be full of barrels in order to give them 
bulk. State credit was at the lowest ebb; warrants ( n the State 
treasury went begging on Carondelet street at 20 cents on the dol¬ 
lar, State bonds at 50 cents on the dollar. Demoralization and 
distrust were everywhere. 

Under white rule the State recovered rapidly. Levees have 
been rebuilt; bonds have gone above par. The State treasury is 
full; warrants are at once cashed. Schools are prosperous for 
both white and colored. Peace prevails everywhere. The whites 
and negroes are on cordial terms. Crime has decreased; courts 
speedily and impartiall}^ administer .iustice. Officers are compe¬ 
tent, careful, honest, and diligent. White immigrants from the 
West have come to Louisiana in large numbers since the over¬ 
throw of negro domination. Except the corrupt and adventurous 
carpetbagger, none ventured there before that time. The people 
of Louisiana have been watchful that there be no return to that 
era of debauchery and crime which I have described. Only one 
serious attempt has been made to go back to it. The negroes 
were massed as they were in 18G8-1876, but the energy of the white 
people prevented this attempt to go back to that period; and so 
they will ever prevent it. No reasonable or intelligent man can 
find fault with them for this determination. 

It has been an absorbing question with the people of Louisiana 
to regulate the suffrage so as to eliiiiiiiate the ignorant negro as 
well as the ignorant white man who has no conception of our 
form of government. The regulation of the suffrage in the pres¬ 
ent constitution does not alone affect the negro. It affects a large 
number in New Orleans who have emigrated to the State since 
the civil war. The controlling motive in the adoption of the 
constitutional provision was to eliminate an impersonal mass 
from the electorate—a mass that exists in all large cities as well 
as in the fields of Louisiana. It is a dangerous power, one which 
has been a potent factor in the overthrow of governments and the 
destruction of nations. Its elimination from electoral power is 
the surest means of preserving republican government. It is 
corrupt. It is unreasoning. It has no intelligence. It has no 
thought. It is a dead weight and is moved by an external force. 
It has no personality, no individuality. It falls under the power 
and dominion of one man or a faction, and is moved irresistibly 
in a course that a directing will orders. 

The bestowal of political power upon mere numbers—the im¬ 
personal mass—can not be justified. It is not the government of a 
free people. It will degenerate into absolutism. The exclusion 
of this impersonal mass is therefore no violation of any represent¬ 
ative law. its inclusion in the electorate is the degradation of 
the whole. 

The multitude is everywhere dangerous to the State, but the bestowal of 
power upon it is to place the arms of her arsenals in the hands of the blind. 
It is the unreason of the State when it calls upon ignorance, vice, and crime 
to determino its career. 

3970 


G 


The writer from whom the above quotation is taken says: 

The object of every political constitution is to exclude this element—that is, 
the impersonal mass—from authority in the State. The reference of ijower 
to it subjects the orpranization of society to brutal force, while the whole effort 
of civilization has been to wrest it from that blind and unthinking sway. 

Democratic government is a representation of a person by a per¬ 
son, and not an inert mass by a person. Every elector has a per¬ 
sonality which finds representation in the government. 

In the very able and interesting address recently made before 
the Senate by the distinguished junior Senator from Indiana he at¬ 
tempted to show that the Filipinos were incapable of self-govern¬ 
ment. He read many statements from intelligent men residing 
among them, showing that if they had the right to vote they 
would vote according to the will of a leader or of their employers. 
They have no will of their own, no individuality, no personality, 
and are an impersonal mass. The views entertained by the dis¬ 
tinguished Senator are those of a majority of Republican Senators 
in this Chamber, and, I presume, of the Senator from North Car¬ 
olina, who offered the resolution. 

If a people is incapable of self-government it is not entitled to 
be intrusted with electoral power. This is self-evident. The de¬ 
scription of the Filipinos is exactly that of the negro race in Louisi¬ 
ana. They tried the experiment of government and made a great 
failure. While some of the authorities quoted by the Senator from 
Indiana say the Filipino might be intrusted with municipal gov¬ 
ernment under restrictions, the negro experiment in Louisiana 
showed that the negro was unsafe when in charge of the munici¬ 
palities of Louisiana. Why, then, do some of the Republicans in¬ 
sist upon inflicting upon Louisiana and North Carolina a govern¬ 
ment that they will not tolerate in the newly acquired territories? 
If it is to secure the negro vote for the Republican party, they 
will not succeed, unless you withdraw a part of the Army from the 
Philippines and again make a military camp of the entire State. 

Review the history of negro suffrage in Louisiana. When first 
exercised by the negro, he fell under the power of the carpetbag¬ 
ger. The entire negro vote was moved by one influence; it was 
one aggregation. It was kept solid by continuous, unremitting 
attention, by promises of land and mules, by threats of a return 
to slavery, by promises of social equality with the whites, by the 
encouragement of race prejudices. When the power of the car¬ 
petbagger was broken, the negro fell under the domination of 
the whites. He was as tractable as when under the power of the 
carpetbagger. He voted just as his immediate employer in the 
country dictated him to vote. He had no will of his own. In 
some localities it was so well known that the entire vote on the 
plantation would be cast according to the views of the proprietor 
that the presence of the negro at the polls was dispensed with. In 
the cities and towns, where they were not employed in large num¬ 
bers by any one person, they soon learned the money value of 
their votes, and through a chosen leader would sell to the highest 
bidder. 

The Republican party existed only in name, composed of a few 
stragglers in New Orleans who kept up a simulated organization 
for the purpose of sending delegates to the Republican national 
convention. It is only since the regulation of the suffrage that 
the party begins to show some vitality, by attracting to it some 
intelligent and respectable white citizens and negroes who have 
sufiicient intelligence and respectability to exercise the right of 
8970 


7 


suffrage. Old-time out respectable itepublicans and Democrats 
and the more intelligent of the negroes demanded a change in our 
political conditions and a reformation of the suffrage. The mem¬ 
bers of the convention which adopted the constitution of 1898 were 
able and conscientious. They were confronted with a serious 
problem, and, in my opinion, they solved it. The suffrage.article 
of the constitution provides that every male citizen 21 years of 
age, a bona fide resident of the State for tv/o years, of the jJarish 
one year, and of tho precinct six months, shall be entitled to vote 
if he can read and write, or if he owns xtroperty, real or personal, 
assessed to him to the amount of $300. The qualification to read 
and write is tested by the ability of the voter to fill out the blank 
application to register, which is as follows: 

I am a citizen of the State of Louisiana. My name is-. I was 

horn in the State (or county) of-, parish (or county) of-, on tho 

-day of-, in the year-. I am now-years-months and 

-day.s of age. I have resided in this State since-, in this parish 

since-, and in precinct No.-, of ward No.-, of this parish, since 

-, and I am not disfranchised hy any provision of the constitution of 

this State. 

This test is siinx^le enough. The disfranchisement has refer¬ 
ence to article 202, which enumerates the causes to be conviction 
of crime the punishment of which is imxDrisonment at hard labor; 
inmates of charitable institutions, except the Soldiers’ Home; 
those actually confined in any public prison, interdicted persons, 
insane or idiotic persons. 

With the exception of this disfranchised class, any citizen, white 
or colored, who has the qualification of residence can vote if he 
be able to read and write or possesses i^roperty assessed to him of 
the value of $300. No constitutional objections can be urged to 
these qualifications. The constitution, section 5, article 197, ex¬ 
cepts a certain class from the qualifications above stated. It is 
this article against which complaint is leveled, because it is said 
it discriminates against the negro. A like provision is contained 
in a proposed amendment to the constitution of North Carolina, 
wdiich is the occasion of the resolution offered by the Senator from 
that State. Section 5 is as follows: 

No male persjon who was on January 1,1867, or at any date prior thereto, 
entitled to vote under the constitution or statutes of any State of the United 
States wherein ho then resided, and noson or grandson of such person not less 
than 21 years of age at tho date of adoption of this constitution, and no male 
person of foreign birth who was naturalized prica- to-the Ist day of January, 
1898, shall bo denied the right to register and vole in this State by reason of 
his failure to possess the educational or property qualifications prescribed by 
this constitution: Provided, He shall have re.sided in this State for five years 
next preceding tho date at which he shall apply for registration, and shall 
have registered in accordance with the terms of this article prior to Septem¬ 
ber 1,1898; and no person shall be entitled to register under this section after 
said date. 

The inclusion of this class does not exclude the negro from vot¬ 
ing. He has the right in common with the white people on the 
conditions alike applicable to both races, that he can read and 
write, or that he owns a certain amount of real or personal prop¬ 
erty. He is deprived of no right of suffrage by the conferring of 
it upon another class. If tho suffrage amendment, because it con¬ 
ferred the right to vote upon certain citizens, is to be interpreted 
as a discrimination against the negro, then no privilege could be 
granted to any white citizen by a State unless a negro was granted 
the same. The fourteenth amendment declares that the privi¬ 
leges or immunities of citizens of the United States shall not be 
abridged by any State. This amendment was intended to protect 
the negro, so that he could not be discriminated against in public 
3970 












8 


places of amusement and on public conveyances and in the courts. 
Suppose a State should for some reason or other provide for the 
free transportation of some of its citizens on a public conveyance, 
then, according to the views of those who complain of the suffrage 
amendment in the constitution of Louisiana, the State would be 
bound to grant the same privilege to an equal number of negroes. 

Amendment fifteen of the Constitution of the United States says: 

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or 
abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or 
previous condition of servitude. 

Wherein is the denial or the abridgment of the negro’s right 
to vote by the inclusion of one class into the electorate? The 
right to vote still remains to him unimpaired. No one will say 
that the educational or property qualification provided for both 
races denies or abridges his right to vote under the fifteenth 
amendment. The gravamen of the complaint is that the same 
exemption from the educational or property qualification was not 
accorded the negro. If this had been done, the educational and 
property qualification would have been useless and the suffrage 
would have been in the same condition as it was before the adop¬ 
tion of the Constitution. 

The Constitution of the United States does not confer the right 
to vote on anyone. This is left exclusively to the States. I am 
not aware of any restriction upon the State as to the persons it may 
admit to the electorate. Its power is unlimited. The only restric¬ 
tion imposed by the Constitution of the United States is that the 
right to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, 
color, or previous condition of servitude. As I have stated, the 
State, in the exercise of its exclusive power to confer the right to 
vote, does not deny or abridge or deny the right of other citizens 
to vote by exempting a certain class from the qualification pro¬ 
vided for the great body of electors. 

There is nothing in the text of the suffrage clause quoted to 
show that there is any denial or abridgment of the right to vote 
on account of race, color, or previous condition. The State, being 
the sole judge of the qualifications of electors, can discriminate 
among the illiterate as to electoral capacity. This is what the 
State of Louisiana has done. There were certain persons living 
in the country parishes who served the State with fidelity who 
could not read or write and who did not own property. The 
descendants of these people had no opportunity immediately after 
the war to obtain an education, as the struggle for an existence 
was hard. They had been voters. They attended public meetings 
punctually and heard discussions on public affairs. They knew 
who was President, governor of the State, and how they were 
elected, and had a very good comprehension of the principles of 
the Government and the duties of public officers. They were 
incorruptible. 

No money or other consideration akin to bribery could influence 
them. They had a personality. They did not vote en masse at 
the dictation of anyone. It was right, it was just, that they should 
be continued as voters. The exemption is not partial to the white 
race. It deprived a great many people in the city of New Orleans 
of the right to vote. Since the close of the war between the States 
large numbers of foreigners have come to New Orleans and many 
have gone into the sugar district who can not read and write and 
who have not the property qualification. Prior to the constitution 
of 1808 they were voters, even after they had filed a declaration of 
8970 


9 


intention to become citizens of the United States, and were influ¬ 
enced and controlled by leaders and voted en masse as directed. 
This class has been disfranchised, and will remain so until they 
become qualified voters. 

Mr. BUTLER. Will the Senator from Louisiana pardon an in¬ 
terruption for a moment? 

Mr. McENERY. Certainly. 

Mr. BUTLER. There is now pending in my State a proposed 
suffrage amendment, to be voted on next August, containing the 
same “grandfather clause” of the Louisiana amendment already 
adopted in that State. This grandfather clause, which is section 
5, is, in my opinion, clearly unconstitutional, and I had under¬ 
stood that the Senator from Louisiana held to the same opinion; 
but it seems from his present remarks that he is now undertaking 
to defend that monstrous absurdity. 

Now, if the Senator will pardon me, I should like to ask him if 
he was not of the opinion when this amendment was i3ending in 
his State that it was clearly unconstitutional, and if he did not 
so advise the convention of his State, and if he did not also advise 
them that the ablest constitutional lawyers of this body held to 
the same opinion? 

Mr. McENERY. Yes, sir. When the constitutional conven¬ 
tion was in session I was telegraphed to know what was my opinion 
of this section 5. I replied to that telegram that in my opinion it 
was unconstitutional. I then received another telegram, after its 
adoption, to know if, when it was attacked, I would defend it in 
the Senate of the United States, To that telegram I replied that 
I would. 

I stand, Mr. President, always ready to defend the people of Loui¬ 
siana when their character is attacked. I stand ready to defend 
them when their interests are in peril. I stand ready to defend 
them when their laws are assailed. 

It is the same way, Mr. President, in reference to my duty to 
the Government of the United States in regard to the war that is 
now being waged in the Philippine Islands. 1 do not stop to in¬ 
quire whether the people of the United States are right or wrong. 
I do not stop to inquire whether or not the first volley was fired 
by the Filipinos or by the troops of the United States. It'is 
enough for me to know that the authority and power of this Gov¬ 
ernment is assailed and that it is the duty of every citizen, no 
matter what were his convictions, to rally to the support of the 
Government, not only to send its ships abroad and its armies upon 
the field and to supply money and munitions of war, but with our 
great sympathy and whole will and heart to stand by the Presi¬ 
dent of the United States and uphold his hand until the enemies 
of this Government are brought under subjection. That saine 
motive, Mr. President, induces me to defend to the best of my abil- 
itv-the constitution of the State of Louisiana when it is assailed. 

But, Mr. President, although that was my opinion at that time, 
since then I have studied the question more carefully, and I hope 
the reasons which I assign are a sufficient justification for that 
change of opinion. 

Mr. BUTLER. Mr. President, I think I now understand the 
Senator. He said the amendment was unconstitutional: but he 
also said in another letter that if his people adopted it, he would 
do his best to defend it in the United States Senate. I do not wish 
to interfere with his speech; but if the Senator does not object to 
the interruption, I have in my hand both of his letters, to which 
3970 


10 


ho has referred, and an editorial from the New Orleans Times- 
Deraocrat, from which I should like, with the j)ermission of the 
Senator, to read. 

The Senator's first letter is as follows: 


To the Timcs-Democrat: 


WAS^I^rGTO^^ D. C., March 17, 1S03. 


In answer, I say that section 5 is grossly unconstitutional. I have sub¬ 
mitted the same to some of the ablest Democrats of the Senate, who are ablo 
constitutional lawyers. They all concur in my opinion that if adopted, the 
effect will be to lose in our representation in Congress and in the electoral 


vote of the State. 


S. D. McENERY. 


The second, to which the Senator himself has referred, is also 
addressed to the New Orleans Times-Democrat and is under date 
of March 19,1898. The Senator has already stated the substance 
of that letter. He says that after the amendment, which he op¬ 
posed and denounced as “grossly unconstitutional,” was adopted 
he would try to defend it when it was attacked. 

That letter is as follows: 

[Special to The Times-Democrat.] 

I know of no better plan for a suffrage article in the constitution than an 
educational or property qualification. This was recommended for adoption 
as an amendment to the present constitution. 

It was defeated not because of its defects, but for other reasons. There 
was universal regret at its defeat, and complaints made against Democratic 
authority for its defeat. I am opposed to the South Carolina plan. It is an 
expedient. In time we will have to adopt the plan herein suggested. A 
serious problem confronts us. It ought to be solved in a manly, courageous, 
and honest way. 1 have no apprehension of negro supremacy or undue negro 
influence in elections under an educational or property qualification. The 
poll-tax .system is said to be effective in Arkansas, Missis.sippi, and probably 
in Tennessee. It may not suit conditions in some parts of Louisiana. There 
is diversity of opinion. It may be reconciled by referring the matter to the 
legislature with discretion. 

Confedej-ate vetei'ans and voters in 1868 can be protected by provision ad¬ 
mitting them to vote without qualifications. This is inclusion of one class 
and not the exclusion of another. In answer to a telegram from delegates, 
I say that in the Senate I would support any plan adopted when attacked. 
My duty to the people of Louisiana would demand this. 

S. D. McENERY. 


I understand that the Senator is now simply carrying out his 
pledge to support whatever they adopted, even though it were 
“gi'ossly unconstitutional.” 

In this connection I will also read a short extract from an edi¬ 
torial in the Times-Democrat from its issue the next day after 
this unconstitutional amendment w^as adopted, commenting upon 
the same: 


After themselve.s disowning and fiercely denouncing section 5, a majority 
of members of the constitutional convention yesterday passed that offen.sive 
section—offensive to Democracy, to political honesty, and to Americanism. 
* * * And the convention, too, has passed this offensive section in face of 
the fact that the ablest Democrats in the United States Senate have declared 
it to be unconstitutional. Senators Caffery and McExery have protested 
against its pas.sage, and have declared that it contravenes the Federal Consti¬ 
tution. In this opinion they are joined by such stalwart Democrats and un¬ 
compromising States’ rights Senators as Turpie, of Indiana; Lindsay, of 
Kentucky; Vest, of Missouri; Berry, of Arkansas; Walthall, of Mississippi; 
Turley, of Tennessee; PETTUS,of Alabama, and McLaurin, of South Caro¬ 
lina, and*many members of the House of Representatives. 

Now, Mr. President, this same constitutional amendment, this 
proposition “ offensive to political honesty and to iVmericanism,” 
is now to be voted upon by the people of my State. My opinion 
about it is the same as that expressed by the Times-Democrat and 
by the Senator in his letter to that paper. But I am glad to hear 
any arguments as to its constitutionality. But the Senator is now 
discussing the evils of negro domination more than the constitu- 
3970 


.11 


tionalit)” of this amendment. If the Senator had before this body 
a proposition to abrogate the fifteenth amendment to the Constitu¬ 
tion, then I would be ready to discuss with him the advisability 
of negro suffrage, to consider its evils and how to remedy or to 
prevent the negro domination which he has said he has had in 
his State, or which might exist anywhere else. There is no negro 
domination in my State, and never will be, for we have more 
than two white voters for every negro voter. 

However, that is not the question now before us, as I under¬ 
stand it. It is a legal question that confronts us. As long as the 
fifteenth amendment stands I consider it the duty of every Sena¬ 
tor and of every citizen- 

Mr. McENERY. I am going to argue that legal question. I 
was just going to do that, if the Senator will permit me to go on. 

Mr. BUTLER. If the Senator will let me finish this sentence, 
I will listen to him with a great deal of interest. I say it is the 
duty of every State not to violate the fifteenth amendment as 
long as it stands as a part of the organic law of the land. In 
fact, we can not violate it, for our attempts to do so will be de¬ 
clared void by the courts. 

I shall be glad to have the Senator address himself, also, to another 
phase of this question in which he is interested in his State and 
in which the people of my State are interested, and it is this: If 
section 5 is unconstitutional, as the Senator advised the conven¬ 
tion of his State that it was, even though he agreed to try to de¬ 
fend its unconstitutional action- 

Mr. McENERY. I will follow my own course of reasoning, so 
far as that is concerned. 

Mr. BUTLER. But it is not the Senator‘s reasoning, but the 
probable action of the Supreme Court, of which I am no w going to 
speak. If section 5 is unconstitutional, then. Mr. President, the 
question is, Will the court knock that out—that section—leaving 
the remainder of the amendment stand? If it does, then the illit¬ 
erate white citizens of the Senator's State, to whom he has just 
paid such a fine tribute, would be then disfranchised and be pow¬ 
erless to remove that provision from the constitution of his State. 

The same thing faces the people of my State. There are over 
60,000 illiterate white voters in my State who would be disfran¬ 
chised, as large a number as there would be of negroes, if section 
5 is unconstitutional; and if the courts should follow the usual 
construction and knock out the objectionable parts, leaving the 
remainder of the constitutional provision, which would, without 
section 5, make a constitutional scheme of limiting suffrage by an 
educational qualification applying to both races alike, to stand. 

Mr. President, this is a danger that should appeal to everyone, 
even though he is willing to violate the fifteenth amendment, 
unless he desires to see the poor and illiterate whites also disfran¬ 
chised. I hope to hear the Senator discuss this phase of the ques¬ 
tion before he concludes. 

Mr. McENERY. In the opinion in the case of United States 
vs. Reese et al. it said by the organ of the court: 

If citizens of one race, having certain qualiflcations, are permitted by law 
to vote, those of another having the same qualifications must be. 

This is the strongest language in the opinion relating to the 
denial or abridgment of the right of the negro to vote. This state¬ 
ment means that where the general law j^rescribes the qualifica¬ 
tions to vote the negro who has these qualifications can not be 
denied the privilege. The State of Louisiana has a provision in 
its constitution prescribing qualifications for all voters, white and 
3970 




12 


colored, and the violation of the fifteenth amendment must nec- 
es?arily be in the denial of the act of voting, by a refusal to per¬ 
mit the negro to register or to deposit his vote on account of his 
race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The exception of 
a certain class from the qualifications provided by the Constitu¬ 
tion in no way affects the negro’s vote, nor does it affect the right 
to vote of white men -who were not voters in liOuisiana or any one 
of the States of the Union in 1867 or prior thereto. 

It has been held by the Supreme Court of the United States that 
the Constitution of the United States has not conferred the right 
of suffrage upon anyone, and that the United States has no voters 
of their own creation in the States. (21 Wall., 178; United States 
vs. Cruikshank et al., 92 U. S., 542.) In the latter case it was said 
by the court, after having quoted from United States vs. Reese et 
al., 92 U. S., 214: 

From this ifc appears that the right of suffrage is not a necessary attribute 
of national citizenship; but that exemption from discrimination in the exer¬ 
cise of that right on account of race, etc., is. but it must be expressly averred. 
(United States vs. Cruikshank, 93 U. S., 543.) 

The fact is. that all negroes who can read and write, and who 
have the qualifications of residence, are in the electorate, and all 
wffll be when they acquire these qualifications. From this it will 
appear that the article was striking at ignorance among both white 
and colored, and not at the negro race. , 

The word “ white,” which would show a discrimination on ac¬ 
count of color, etc., is not in the article regulating the suffrage. 
Affirmatively it confers the right to vote on the negro. (Ex i^arte 
Yarborough, 110 U. S., 651.) 

The right to vote in the State comes from the State; but the 
right of exemption from the prohibited discrimination comes from 
the United States. The first has not been granted or secured by 
the Constitution of the United States, but the latter has been. The 
provisions in the constitution of Louisiana in regulating the suf¬ 
frage do not express any discrimination on account of race, color, 
or previous condition of servitude. It is not enough to infer or 
suspect that the suffrage article in the Constitution discrimi¬ 
nates. In McPherson vs. Blacker (110 U. S., page 1) it was said, 
reviewing both the fourteenth and the fifteenth amendments: 

The right to vote intended to be protected refers to the right to vote as 
established by the laws and constitution of the State. There is no color for 
the contention that under the amendment every male inhabitant of the 
State, being a citizen of the United States, has, from the time of his majority, 
a I’ight to vote for Presidential electors. 

The State therefore having the exclusive power to say who shall 
be electors, has the right to discriminate between its citizens as to 
capacity for electoral rights, provided it makes no discrimination 
on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 
(Williams vs. Mississippi, 170 U. S., page 213.) 

The State has the exclusive right of prescribing qualifications 
for the voter. It has prescribed them, and every negro in the 
State can vote if he has these qualifications, which in the general 
law are common to him and the white man. 

In the State of Louisiana the negroes who can not read and 
write are those who were slaves. They are fast passing awav, 
leaving a generation behind them who "can read and write, and 
who have learned to do so in the schools established for colored 
people by the State of Louisiana. The election law of Louisiana 
is of the Australian kind, and every voter can now have his vote 
counted and an expression of his will enforced. There negroes 
can register and vote without interlerence. 

3970 


13 


The State of Louisiana has done a great deal for the negro. It 
has elevated him morally and intellectually. He pays no taxes of 
any amount, j’-et the people of that State cheerfully and generously 
contribute for his schools and his churches. Schools are in every 
neighborhood. The State has organized a prosperous university, 
where there is industrial training and facilities for a higher edu¬ 
cation. As the negro will not patronize a school where white 
teachers are provided, a normal school has been provided to edu¬ 
cate their teachers. Besides the university established and sup¬ 
ported by the State, there are several colleges of a high order with 
able faculties. 

Had the negro continued in power, the State would have been 
one vast sea of desolation; values of all kinds would have been de¬ 
stroyed, fields uncultivated, improvements of all kinds delayed; 
schools would have been closed, and he, the tool of unscrupulous 
adventurers, would be now sunk in moral degradation and mental 
darkness. 

The people of the South availed themselves of the first oppor¬ 
tunity, after the white people gained the ascendency, to relDuild 
their shattered fortunes. In 1870 there were 4,352,317 bales of 
cotton, with an aggregate value of $326,032,036; in 1880, 6,605,750 
bales, of an aggregate value of $344,555,920; in 1890, 8,652,597, 
worth $369,118,787.02; in 1898,11,119,994 bales, worth $243,399,668, 
but because of the low price of cotton— 4i cents per pound —this 
enormous increase was worth $100,002,200 less than the crop of 
1890. From 1870 to 1890 the population of the South increased 
100 per cent. From 1880 to 1890 the South made an advance of 37 
per cent in farm products as against a gain of 50 per cent for all 
the rest of the country. The total value of farms for the South 
in 1880 was $660,000,000; for the rest of the country it was $1,555,- 
000,000. In 1890 the South had gained $107,000,000, or 16 per cent, 
while the rest of the country had gained only $141,000,000, or 9 per 
cent. 

During the year just closed there were established in the South 
industrial enterprises to the number of 1,938, comprising agricul- 
tm’al, forestal, and mineral industries. In nine Southern States 
there are 4,773 knitting machines; in five there are are 57 woolen 
mills, devoted to making all wool and mixed wool. Several of the 
Southern States are manufacturing furniture from native woods, 
said to be as good as that made elsewhere. Cotton factories are 
being established everywhere near the fields of production, and 
during the past year there was consumed 1,400,026 bales. Coal 
and iron mines have been opened and furnaces and rolling mills 
established. Railroads now cross every section of the country. 

“ The opportunities of the South are those of the nation.” Let 
her alone and her possibilities for the future can only be conjec¬ 
tured. They are limitless. 

The rapid industrial progress of the South was impossible under 
negro domination. Restore to the negro indiscriminately the bal¬ 
lot and invest him with power, and there will not only be a check 
to the progress of the South, but the advantage gained will be lost. 

There can be no admixture of the races. This is a law of nature. 
They must work out their destinies on parallel lines, which can 
not come together. The Anglo-Saxon blood and brain will always 
be the superior and can not be subordinated to the negro. 

The negro, unfortunately for the country, is here to stay. His 
deportation is impossible. He has strong local attachments which 
will keep h im in the South. He mu -t move along in his own line 
of development, directed, encouraged, and assisted by the Anglo- 
8970 


14 


Saxon. He will become more intelligent, more self-sustaining, 
and better adapted for work along all lines of industrial develop¬ 
ment. Since the supremacy of the white people has asserted itself 
the negro is becoming more tractable, a better laborer, a better 
mechanic, and in some instances has attained a respectable stand¬ 
ing in the professions. These intelligent negroes are in the elec¬ 
torate and are helping to shape the destiny of the State. It would 
])e a cruel wrong to again throw them back into race hostility and 
prejudice and to consign those who have the opportunities for 
advancement to again possess the idea that they are “wards of 
the nation,” better than a white man, and are entitled to Govern¬ 
ment support and to live in idleness and dissipation. 

We of the South are making the negro's condition better every 
day. He has been treated so as to destroy, to a great extent, the 
antagonism engendered by carpetbag government. He is re¬ 
garded as a factor in the South's future development. He is not 
debarred from work because he is a negro. The fields, the work¬ 
shops, the factories, and the professions are open to him for his 
development. We do not deny his political rights because he is a 
negro. We regulate the suffrage because he is ignorant, and at 
present the majority of the negro race has no electoral capacity. 

The course of civilization has been in the supremacy of the white 
race. The physical properties of soil and climate have had less 
influence than intellectual superiority. In every climate, on every 
soil where the white man has appeared, he has asserted supremacy. 
The African and the Oriental fall under his dominion, and the 
Ijopulations are moved and controlled as he directs. It is so to-day 
in India, in Africa, and is rapidly crystallizing into a fact in the 
far east, in China, and in the islands of the Pacific. The concep¬ 
tion of this power and strength in the white race, whose distinc¬ 
tion is in the separation of the races, is the hope of civilization 
and the enlightenment of the world. Language and art and 
science and architecture and all modes of culture will bear the 
impress of the white man’s supremacy. It is a universal law. It 
is present here and everywhere, and no act of Congress can sus¬ 
pend it. 

The greatness of a republic consists in the representation of 
persons. Political x)ower in a representative government must be 
in the organization of electoral action, so that there may be an 
expression, a realization of personality in the government. 

‘ ‘ There is no basis for electoral rights where there is no capac¬ 
ity for electoral action.” In the impersonal mass, where there is 
an absence of individuality and personality and an absence of 
electoral capacity, it is the duty of the State to lift the individuals 
composing the mass from an indifference to electoral power and 
to educate them for its exercise. It is the duty of the State to de¬ 
velop in each member of the community personal power as an 
elector. This is what the State of Louisiana is accomplishing. 
It provides for the negro and the ignorant emigrant schools where 
they can learn the elements of an education. It goes further and 
provides for higher education. The State is trying from among 
this class “ the formation of an independent manhood, so that he 
who has reached his majority in years is always in his political 
majority.” When this shall have been accomplished the voter 
can exclaim, “ I have not gone with the multitude to do evil.” 

“It is thus also that Indians are excluded from voting; not be¬ 
cause they are not taxed, but because they are subservient to the 
will of a chief; and absolutely controlled by it they are without 
8970 


15 


freedom.^ They also exist in a tribal relation, the organization of 
a race, which isolates them from the organic and moral being of 
the nation; but in withdrawing from the tribal relation they come 
upon a national position and should be regarded as members of 
the nation.” 

The populations in the Philix)pines, as we learn from the junior 
Senator from Indiana, are wanting in personality and fall under 
the control of some superior mind, and are not fit to be intrusted 
with electoral power. And this may be truly said of the mass of 
the negro population in the South. Every person should have 
representation in the State, but this means every actual person, 
one who is possessed of sufficient intelligence to separate himself 
from the mass and who is invested with a personality, showing a 
capacity for electoral action. ^ 

The qualifications of an elector are defined in a general law, but 
they may be more exactly defined as the State progresses. In de¬ 
fining the qualifications of an elector under the Constitution of 
the United States the State has the power to exclude those who 
have no will of their own, and to keei^ them so excluded until they 
attain the qualifications prescribed iDy law. It can more exactly 
define the qualifications of electors by including a class which it 
deems of sufficient intelligence to be admitted to the right of suf¬ 
frage. The fact that the admission of the class designated in sec¬ 
tion 5 of the constitution of Louisiana to the right of suffrage, 
and that it increases the number of electors and may give an ad¬ 
vantage in number to the white people, is no evidence that the 
right of the negro to vote has been denied or abridged. 

The State of Louisiana undoubtedly has the power to enact a 
law declaring that, for the love and reverence of the people of 
Louisiana for the late General Beauregard, his descendents, as a 
mark of distinction, shall have the right to vote and be exempt 
from the suffrage clause of the Constitution. This would not 
deny or abridge the right of the negro to vote. But under the 
theory of the Senator from North Carolina it would, unless a 
negro was given the same distinction. Some negro general of 
militia of the reconstruction era would have to be thus honored, or 
the law would be a violation of the fourteenth and fifteenth 
amendments to the Constitution of the United States. 

The fifteenth amendment never intended to place the negro on 
a perfect plane of equality with the white man, so as to deny priv¬ 
ileges to the latter without giving the same to the former. It 
means only that the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged 
because of his race, color, or previous condition. 

In our democratic government the majorit}’’ rules. This is not 
tyranny. There is no power so devoid of tyranny as the political 
majority. All tyranny has sprung from the minority acting be¬ 
yond and outside of the law. It has been said that 80U persons 
inaugurated the reign of terror in France. A few carpetbaggers 
controlling the negroes inaugurated a reign of terror in the South. 
In Louisiana, after the disappearance of the carpetbag negro gov¬ 
ernment, one man controlling sometimes 100 negro voters exer¬ 
cised a dangerous power. He overthrew the will of voters who 
lived in another section of the State where no such power was 
attainable, because of the absence of the negro from those sections. 
With the mass of the negroes as voters there was no political 
majority in Louisiana. A minority necessarily governed because 
of the preponderance of the negro population and the abilitj^ to 
absolutely control it by one or more persons. The remedy is a 
8970 


principle of representation involving the right of all as against 
the aroitrary rule of a few controlling an impersonal mass of 
voters. 

In the constitution of 1898 for arbitrary action of an individual 
or class there has been substituted the well-being of the whole 
against the design of a few. There may be to the unthinking an 
apparent wrong in the inclusion of one class of voters into the 
electorate, but this inclusion was of a class who have freedom of 
will, independence, and capacity for political action. The inclu¬ 
sion of the negro, as I have described his capacity for the suffrage, 
would have been a greater wrong and a detriment to the whole 
electorate. The State of Louisiana was compelled to change this 
condition in its political affairs so as to avert grave disaster in the 
paralysis of power and will and to give strength and energy and 
power and authority to the government. It was compelled to 
look among its citizens for a higher personality in order to bestow 
electoral power upon them. It had the sole and exclusive right 
to do this. Its judgment can not be questioned unless you find 
that for arbitrary reasons the negro was excluded from the elec¬ 
torate simply because he was a negro. 

The question raised in the resolution offered by the Senator 
from North Carolina is a judicial one. Congress has the power, 
but it has not the right, to delare any law or constitutional pro¬ 
vision of a State unconstitutional. Under the Constitution of the 
United States this is the exclusive prerogative of the judiciary. 
If the resolution should pass, it would be meaningless in the face 
of a decree of the Supreme Court of the L^nited States declaring 
such a provision in the constitution of a State constitutional, not 
being in violation of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. 
Congress can pass no law coercing a State. If, under the guar¬ 
anty of a republican form of government to the States, any State 
should organize a government not republican, but hostile to that 
of the L^nited States, then the State would be virtually placing 
itself outside of the Union, and Congress, by the military iiower 
of the Government, if necessary, would undoubtedly have the 
right to rehabilitate the State and organize a government repub¬ 
lican in form. 

But because a law or an article in the constitution of a State is 
invalid, because of its conflict with the Constitution of the United 
States, gives Congress no right or authority to declare the law or 
the article in the constitution null and void. It would be the 
usurpation of judicial authority and in itself unconstitutional. 
Suppose the judicial department should decree that the article in 
the constitution of the State .is null and void. The effect of the 
decree would be to reinstate the suffrage as it was before the con¬ 
stitution was adopted. Then, if a negro should be denied the right 
to vote—the exercise of the act of voting—because of his race, 
color, or previous condition, the fifteenth amendment would be 
violated, and the individual cr person preventing the act of voting 
\yould be liable to be prosecuted under any law of Congress en¬ 
acted to carry out the provisions of said amendment. 

,«>In my opinion Congress can only enact a law to act upon the 
;^rson or persons who deny or abridge the right to exercise the 
\^ct of voting on account of race, color, or previous condition. It 
, can not punish the State. It can not deprive the State of any of 
its constitutional rights. Its laws must be respected until they 
{(re declared unconstitutibnal by the judiciary department of the 
Government. 

3970 


